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When you dedicate yourself to something with all your heart, the doors will open. Tayari Jones has social justice bonafides. My parents met at an NAACP meeting, she said to a packed Egyptian Theatre on Jan. 16. I am the product of civil rights. To say that her novels are about the issues facing people of color, feminism or the American criminal justice system, however, is to miss an important part of her message as a novelist. My subject matter is ordinary people interacting with history, she said. Jones, whose latest novel, An American Marriage, has been praised by taste-makers like Oprah and former President Barack Obama, was in Boise for The Cabin literary centers Readings & Conversations series. That book is about a woman wrestling with ethical, moral and personal dilemmas while her husband serves a sentence for a crime he didnt commit. Much of Jones talk was about her own life, and though she didnt earmark the fact for the audience, the stories she told pointed to a tendency toward alienation, and a day-to-day familiarity with the literary and the topical. Her career as a writer seemed almost predestined. When she was a child, her parents, fed up with American politics, packed their bags and moved the family to West Africa Just imagine this kid, in a whole other country, a whole other set of rules, she said. Later,as a student at Spellman College, she forged a departments chairs signature to get into a creative writing class. Since then, her life has been a stream, the current of which has drawn her toward being a writer and encouraging people to scull their own oars. When you dedicate yourself to something with all your heart, the doors will open, she said. There have been rapids, though: At one point in her career, Jones books were out of print, and publishers looked at their sales and turned away what would end up one of her most noteworthy novels, Silver Sparrow. She would later labor for years over the ending of An American Marriage, the title of which was her editors suggestion. Though she balked at the title at firstAn American Marriagesounds like two people getting a divorce in Connecticuther editor observed that American can be a tough term to own. I had never been called American before, Jones said.

Keep an eye on the CurbIt website for more details on when the vouchers will go out, and how to redeem them. Since the City of Boise rolled out its Hefty EnergyBag recycling program in May of 2018, citizens have used it to send more 190 tons of plastics to Salt Lake City to be turned into biofuels, filling about 275,000 individual bags. That popularity has pushed the citys Public Works department to look for a more efficient way than mass delivery to help the public restock its supply of EnergyBags for 2019. The solution, according to a memo sent out to the Public Works Commission from residential recycling program headPeter McCullough, could be a voucher program, which should ensure citizens get their free rolls of 26 bags without the delivery snafus of last year. In the summer of 2018, due to what McCullough called logistical errors, a private contractor hired to deliver roughly 74,000 rolls of energy bags skipped entire neighborhoods and deposited single bags, rather than full rolls, at some households. The voucher program will also cement the programs connection with Albertsons, which is already selling rolls of EnergyBags to people who went through their initial 26 at a faster pace than the average. The Hefty EnergyBag vouchers will allow residents to get a free roll of 26 bags at a participating store, wrote Public Works spokeswoman Natalie Monro in an email. Albertsons is currently carrying the bags, and other local stores are working with the vendor to supply bags as well. We will keep an updated list of participating stores on our website at curbitboise.org/recycling. We hope that our residents continue to engage in the Hefty EnergyBag program. Our aim is for the vouchers to allow us to do a better job of delivering to our residents, and that we will avoid distributing bags to customers that dont wish to participate in this voluntary program. Keep an eye on the CurbIt website for more details on when the vouchers will go out, and how to redeem them. The vouchers will be released beginning in April and ending in May.

Really our best opportunity is to impact this is from the demand side of the equation. The United States is buckling under the weight of its cheese surplus. NPR reportsthat according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics, the extra 900,000 cubic yards of cheese currently sitting in cold storage make up the largest glut in American historyand could wrap a cheese wall around the U.S. Capitol. Thats not good news for Idahos dairy farmers, whose troubles with low milk prices which are based on national cheese values have been compounded by U.S. trade conflicts with Mexico and China. Idaho Dairymens Association CEORick Naerebout said that although the surplus is in large part due to a surging milk supply that has outpaced national demand, a drop in exports caused by tariffs has fed the cheese glut. Cheese is one of those big export items, he said, ...Mexico is our biggest trade partner and theres a 25 percent tariff on cheese going to Mexico, so its effectively taking opportunity out of the marketplace as long as that retaliatory tariff remains in place. While Naerebout said the country has seen positive demand in cheese consumptionthe USDA reports Americans ate 39.1 pounds of cheese per person in 2017, up about 1.5 percent from 2016its not enough to offset a dairy industry booming thanks to more efficient cows and, in Idahos case, more cows in the industry. The price of milk per 100 pounds known in the industry as the price per hundredweight was last reported by the USDA inOctober2018 at $17.40, 20 cents below the 2017 average but more than $2 higher than the lowest reported average of the year, which was $15.30 in February. The Farm Journals MILK magazine reports that the price of milk has been below the cost of production since 2010, but international retaliation to the Trump administrations tariffs on steel and aluminum have made the curve steeper, and the slow-moving dairy industry has struggled to react. Reducing herd size is an unappealing prospect for many farmers, who have invested heavily in their cows. And as Naerebout pointed out, there arent really any other quick, viable options. Its a two-year decision to get a calf to the point that shes producing, so theres not a lot of tools in the toolbox for dairymen when it comes to slowing down production, he said. And its not like you can just tell her, Hey, milk prices are low, quit producing milk. It just doesnt work that way.

Raj Jain has joined Zions Bank as an executive banking relationship manager, based at the Boise, Eagle and Chinden branch. Jain previously worked as a relationship manager for KeyBank and also has experience as a small business owner. Stuart Williams has been named executive banking regional manager, based at the banks 8th and Main branch ...

The Idaho Legislature will once again consider ban the box legislation that is intended to make it easier for people convicted of a crime to apply for jobs. Such legislation was proposed last year, but was pulled by its sponsor, Sen. Cherie Buckner-Webb, D-Boise, who confirmed she would be trying a version of the bill ...

Lawmakers have advanced legislation to help state officials cap what are thought to be hundreds of artesian wells across southern Idaho in a plan that could help irrigators and a federally protected snail. The Senate Resources and Environment Committee on Monday unanimously approved moving ahead with legislation that will alter a 1987 law with an ...

While reading the notes and suggestions left in the comment box in the newly revamped food pantry, Anna Moreshead, the assistant dean of students, received a lot of gratitude from students about the pantry. The food pantry, located in the Office of the Dean of Students, opened last year on Jan. 30. Since then it ...

Women from The Arbiter and University Pulse Radio share their songs for staying motivated: Jordan, Editor-in-Chief: Majesty by Nicki Minaj Ximena, Online Editor: Successful by Ariana Grande Logan, Culture Editor: Motherlove by Bea Miller Delaney, Sports Editor: Lemon by N.E.R.D. and Rihanna Isabel Everett, Social Media Manager: Independent Woman by Destinys Child Isabel, Graphic Designer: ...

On Saturday, Jan. 12 in the Taco Bell Arena, the Boise State womens basketball team was doing what they do best: beating their conference opponents in impressive fashion. By defeating the San Jose Spartans 99-68, a season high in points, the Broncos move to 12-2 overall and 3-0 in conference play for the 2018-19 season. ...

You may know Idahos red, white and blue license plates were created to celebrate its centennial in 1990. What you may not know is that for every Idaho license plate Click to Continue

Companies Boises family-owned McAlvain Cos. Inc. construction firm has been sold to Big-D Construction of Salt Lake City. Torry McAlvain Sr., whose father, Doug, started the business in 1980, will Click to Continue

If there are two things a fans wants to see happen on the ice when attending an Idaho Steelheads game, its a goal and a fight and not necessarily Click to Continue